Abby Fretz's Articles on Cognitionhttps://cognition.happycog.com/feed
A blog by the folks at Happy Cogencontact@happycog.comCopyright 2020Thu, 30 Apr 2020 13:03:44 GMTA Key Player on a Wicked Teamhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/a-key-player-on-a-wicked-team
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/a-key-player-on-a-wicked-team#id:277#date:19:13Recently I attended a workshop run by the legendary designer and boundary-pushing problem solver, Bruce Mau. The workshop, hosted by PennPraxis and the Penn Institute for Urban Research (PennIUR), focused on a large scale (citywide) question, “How Do We Design a More Equitable Philadelphia?”

Thrilled to have been accepted into the workshop (one of a handful of non-PennPraxis or PennIUR students in the room), I entered the experience with significant apprehension. Could I, as a digital design professional (and a project manager to boot), contribute anything of value to the dialogue in this room full of Ivy League graduate students – students who are perpetually immersed in the practice of exploring the use of design as a solution to large scale societal and cultural issues? As it turns out, I could.

“New Wicked Problems Demand New Wicked Teams”

At the core of Mau’s problem solving methodology (24 Hours to Massive Change) lies the principle that the very techniques we use to explore design challenges with clients can be used as a “critical methodology” in the exploration and resolution of any problem, at any scale, and in any discipline. In exactly the same way that I help facilitate client workshops at Happy Cog (in which we use a very similar series of exercises), I was able to encourage and push my workshop group (comprised of urban planning and architect experts) through what often ends up being an exciting, if sometimes uncomfortable, boundary-pushing process. The cumulative expertise at the table is what Mau refers to as “renaissance teams.”

As the consummate generalist, I often wonder about the value of my role vs. the role of an “expert” on my team. In reality though, at the core of the digital project management practice lies the requirement that the project manager be an “expert” in synthesizing a wide range of personalities, levels of expertise, and subject matter, in an ever-changing technology landscape. We know when to ask the right questions and when to pull in the appropriate “experts.” The expert generalist in me love’s Mau’s bio line, “Bruce Mau is not any one thing.”

Wicked Teams First Articulate Problems, Not Solutions
At the beginning of the workshop, Mau assured us that we weren’t going to come up with a “magic bullet” solution. That was not the workshop’s goal. In fact, that would almost assuredly NOT happen. He emphasized that this room full of brilliant minds would likely not come up with one astounding idea, previously unimagined. However, in order to generate MANY ideas in a short timeframe, we needed to start by articulating the problem – something anyone at the table, whether urban planner or digital project manager, could likely do quite well. Often, Mau explained, clients do not start a project with a clear articulation of their problem. Rather, they say, “This is what I want. This is the solution.” It’s up to us to ask the right questions.

“Sketch: Hey everybody, let’s fail!”

I’d like to give you a surprise ending to the workshop story and say that one team came really, really close to resolving at least one aspect of inequality in Philadelphia. But that’s not true. And that’s not the point. As each of the workshop teams dove into the infamous, sticky note, rapid-fire idea generating portion of the workshop, it became clear that this was going to do what these workshops do best – each group, of very mixed professional areas of expertise, was able to fill page after page with ideas and facets of ideas. Eventually, a couple of ideas rose to the top and were drafted into more refined concepts. Urban planners were talking digital marketing and epidemiologists were talking fundraising. At no point did anyone shut another practitioner down because of a lack of expertise. Lesson re-learned. I don’t have to be Dan DeLauro to have insights into the dev process. I don’t have to be Amanda Buck to think of a great solution to a specific design dilemma. Problem solving starts with wicked nuggets from a renaissance team that, under expert attention and care, grow into full blown systems and revolutions.

]]>TopicsDesign ThinkingProcessProject ManagementThu, 10 Mar 2016 19:13 GMTLearning to teach from a seven-year-oldhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/learn-to-teach
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/learn-to-teach#id:264#date:19:31Last weekend my best friend’s gregarious seven-year-old (we’ll call her Ellie) took over our lunch date to ask if she could teach me to play the board game Sorry!. Ellie has known, since she was four, that she wants to be a teacher. She wakes up early to play school, goes to school, then comes home and promptly starts playing school with her 2-year-old twin sisters. SHELOVESSCHOOL. But really, she loves teaching.

The experience of Ellie teaching me how to play Sorry! was downright incredible. There is no doubt that she has honed the craft of teaching through constant play. I watched, astounded as she employed an approach to teaching that very few adults have mastered.

What did she do that was so beyond her seven years? Why was it so striking to me?

In recent months I have taught clients and adult professionals topics ranging from “Digital Project Management” (a 101 class offered by the local GirlDevelopIt chapter) to “how to manage your content in the Craft CMS” and I’ve been zeroing in on the base-level tenets of teaching that make these lessons successful for me and my students.

I watched, jaw dropped, as Ellie followed – to the letter – the following steps that I’ve only recently begun mastering:

1. Before you start, understand your client. Be prepared.

Ellie asked me if I like board games, had I ever played Sorry!, or if I had ever heard of it. She immediately understood the depth of direction I needed.

2. Put your client at ease and cultivate their interest.

When I told her I’d heard of it but had never played, she said, “Oh, well you’re going to love this. It’s pretty easy…but FUN! Aren’t the game pieces super cool!?”

3. Gather your thoughts. Take the time to path it out.

After getting confirmation from me that the game did indeed seem fabulous at first glance, Ellie paused. She put her hands authoritatively on the board, arranged several piles of cards, straightened out the pieces, then took a deep breath. “Ok, Abby. Let’s get started.”

Ellie guided me through how turns worked, each of the numeric cards you might pull, and what that meant for you as a player at particular points in the game.

She then talked me through the shortcuts and traps on the board. Not only did she give me the bare bones facts, she told stories as examples about times she had been happy she’d landed on a square that meant you could advance, or disappointed when she’d had to wait extra turns. “Abby, seriously think about it, three’s can be SOOO good if you’re HERE on the board and you need to get here.” Seriously.

5. Confirm that your client understands what you’ve taught them and feels confident to move forward on their own.

Throughout the lesson, I was given several opportunities to ask questions, and confirm that I was ready for more. At the end of the lesson, she put down the cards, clapped her hands together, smiled at me encouragingly and said, “Ok, are we ready to get started?!?”

]]>TagslearningEducationFri, 20 Nov 2015 19:31 GMTA More Perfect Unionhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/a-more-perfect-union
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/a-more-perfect-union#id:249#date:16:15At Happy Cog, we frequently check in with each other about our respective projects and how things are going. In both post-mortems meetings and weekly check-ins we evaluate not only on the time, budget, and resourcing health of a project, but on how the client is doing – on the experience of working with each client.

Even if all the proverbial stars on a project are aligned and our relationship with the client team or team lead is compromised, the project will suffer despite an otherwise healthy set of factors. So what do we look for in a partner and what should a partner be looking for in us?

A strong team, but more importantly a team lead:

Is empowered.

The client is invested in seeing the project go well

Successfully advocates for change – has a deep understanding of the brand in its current state and a vision for what it COULD BE

Is able to convince others of this same vision – acts as a flag-bearer for change

Understands scope.

In the planning process, the client team is able to articulate and set realistic expectations around the type of content and assets and speed at which they are able to produce these assets during the course of the project and beyond
plans for how to manage this among competing projects, or seasonal spikes in their business cycle

The team can work with us to spell out clear collective technology environment and capabilities

They understand the pace at which your team is capable of operating

Can manage key stakeholder schedules and competing interests within an agreed timeline to ensure we’re able to maintain our progress once the project gets moving.

They’re owed favors, they have a good reputation within the organization, they’re meeting invites are accepted, their emails answered.

They’re able to translate intent from people within the organization – what is truth vs. what is packaging?

We give client teams massive props. They often need to navigate layer upon layer of stakeholders. A year from now, when we have wrapped the project, the client continues working with their team, and supporting their ever-evolving, newly launched website. This requires a more complex form of negotiating, with longer lasting repercussions.

We’re interested in hearing from you (both agencies and client-side teams). What are the strongest signs for you that you have a strong project partner? What are key indicators of team health and efficiency? Are there any indicators you thought were requirements but turn out to not be as important?

Additional resources:

Co-founder and design director of Mule Design Studio and accomplished author, Mike Monteiro’s A Book Apart book, “You’re My Favorite Client” aims to demystify the design process and guide the client through being an effective partner.

]]>TopicsClient RelationsProject ManagementMon, 17 Aug 2015 16:15 GMTConnecting TEDxPhiladelphia through content and codehttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/connecting-tedxphiladelphia
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/connecting-tedxphiladelphia#id:239#date:18:46Happy Cog is a content company. It’s the thread through all of our projects, regardless of industry, and always has been. We connect people and ideas. It’s in our DNA. When TEDxPhiladelphia reached out to us, we knew this was an opportunity we wanted to explore.

Happy Cog has long worked to solve the complex challenges inherent in connecting users with the content they seek intuitively and enjoyably. With an organization like TEDxPhiladelphia as our partner, and Philadelphia as our canvas, we had an opportunity to build something truly special. TEDxPhiladelphia.org is the beginning of a conversation. This dialog will lead through this year’s TEDxPhiladelphia conference, into a series of events in 2015 that connect communities and ideas in meaningful and unexpected ways. We’re thrilled to create a forum for this collaboration, and excited to see its results.

-Joe Rinaldi, Happy Cog President

The challenge in the TEDxPhiladelphia project was building an extensible framework that intuitively and enjoyably powered content discovery. Mapping out those content relationships was no easy feat, so that’s where we started.

We completed an extensive audit of content from previous years. What had several years’ worth of TEDxPhiladelphia events produced? We spend a lot of time in spreadsheets at this point. There are more complicated and labor intensive ways to map these patterns and relationships, but we aim for an artifact that our back-end development team can consume as quickly as possible.

One of the central content types produced by the organization is video. After every conference TED, the nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas which spearheaded the global TEDx community, approves and hosts videos from TEDx conferences held around the world, including TEDxPhiladelphia’s, on their Youtube account, making them available for broader public consumption beyond the local events. Additionally, each legacy speaker has a wealth of associated content – publications, biography, suggested resources, associated organizations, and more. The TEDxPhiladelphia team also regularly produces blog content both about upcoming events and subject matter related to speakers and their talks. We mapped how these content types and others were related and structured the information architecture around how people might explore and consume related content. At the same time, we mapped WordPress around the same content hierarchies and relationships. Content strategy starts in code.

From there we applied all that we could consume about the TED and TEDx brands, as well as our fluency with the city of Philadelphia, to strike a balance between these mature, well-defined global brands, and our hometown. We study and gracefully implement and extend global brands. It’s a passion for our entire team. TEDxPhiladelphia organizer Emaleigh Doley pitched this project to Happy Cog as “VisitPhilly.com for the city’s great thinkers and ideas.” Once we identified that target, brand relationships became much clearer. We worked through low-fidelity design explorations to arrive at the right balance between an identity native to the city, but still responsibly aligned with the TED and TEDx brands. We’re building a digital workshop where ideas and opinions can be forged and refined.

From here we’re moving into the future beyond the annual TEDxPhiladelphia conference event. The site is built with the appropriate hooks needed to grow into supporting future state ideas and year-round events. In discussing what a next phase of the project might look like, we’ve identified a set of extended user account and community features. What would a regular user of the site want to contribute to the broader TEDxPhiladelphia community and dialog? How could they organize resources on the site and share their favorite talks (favorites, watchlists, etc.). How can we encourage users to establish relationships on the site and contribute to future events and generate and grow ideas beyond the annual live conference?

TEDxPhiladelphia as a group is committed to supporting this conversation endlessly moving forward, but they balance this dedication against their full-time day jobs. The system has to be powerful, but painlessly extensible. We constructed the entire platform within the constraint that WordPress had to do what WordPress does well, and at the same time meet TEDxPhiladelphia’s content managers’ needs. We’re excited to see where the conversation goes from here!

I truly love a well-built plan and get a thrill from artfully making adjustments to make a project work. Performance—timeliness, making good on promises, transparency (even delivering bad news)—all build the vital trust that is core to a good client relationship.

There is a beauty in crafting a relationship with a client, that is built both on tactical skill AND the artful and persistent effort to know the “people” behind the “client.”

Anticipation + Assuaging Fear

In a recent conversation with Dan Mall (a SuperFriendly dude I run into occasionally) about the titles “Project Manager” vs. “Producer”, he mentioned that in thinking through the role he had started compiling a list of its core functions. One point on his list rings super true to me:

“Help clients see the future. If they know what’s coming, they freak out less.”

At the onset of a client project, I make sure to have plenty of “face time” (often via phone) with my main point of contact on the client side as well as key stakeholder who stand to be affected by the outcome of the project. My conversations are not only centered around developing a rapport but honing in on fears:

What aspect of the project does the client bring up repeatedly?

What questions or conversations really trip up a client? Questions about team responsibilities? Questions about sign-offs or unseen stakeholders? Questions about design?

I consider myself successful when I’ve given clients answers to questions they haven’t yet thought to ask and have found opportunities to reiterate specific assurances. Sometimes before a client has clearly expressed concern, I have let them know I am aware of the concern simply by emphasizing team competency and skills, thorough documentation, or awareness of ‘red flags’. This very quickly serves to build trust and a sense of partnership.

Using All The Tools In Your Toolbox

Any good process stands to benefit from a checklist (be quiet, I love checklists). First impressions are vital, but, it’s ok to try something, fail, and readjust until you land on the right ‘voice’ and communication style for this person. And it’s REALLY hard to give yourself the permission to step outside of a very formalized relationship and being creative and flexible in your approach to a client.

To get to this point, in the early stages of a project, I go through the following checklist:

Identify opportunities in these first few weeks to meet (in person or via private phone call) with the client.

Get some background (internet stalk) on your client. Know where they come from. What makes them tick.

Show some damn personality. Where can I express my enthusiasm and dedication to the project and the web in general(without using 50 exclamation points!!!!)?

The Softer Side of PM-Client Relationships

On a recent project, my main point of contact on the client side loved and had studied musical theater. He’d make obscure references to songs on calls and in emails. On one particular call, we started riffing about how the hold music was intolerable and what, in an ideal world, we would play instead. I set up a Basecamp writeboard, invited him, and started documenting all the ideas we’d had in the meeting – nothing at all to do with our project. Throughout the course of the project, we’d occasionally go in and add to the list which gave us an opportunity to step back from the project and banter about something we had in common.

In another case, my client contact traveled frequently and was tough to get a hold of via Basecamp or email. As a busy director of marketing, all of his writing was very brief – a sentence or two that sounded like a tweet or text. Though I typically loathe to use texting as an official means of communication, I asked him if he minded if we texted occasionally when we needed to communicate quickly (which he eagerly agreed to). The conversational nature of texts actually lent itself to both of our communication styles and we ended up feeling more comfortable sending each other design inspiration photos and links to social media more than I think we would have via email or posts. We had found a reason to build a conversation that humanized us to each other beyond the project needs.

I’m curious – How do you go beyond being tactically excellent at what you do to craft strong client trust and relationships? Have you found a consistently effective conversation or goodwill gesture that seems to be a keystone to an ongoing good client-PM partnership?

]]>TopicsClient ServicesClient RelationsProject ManagementTagsproject healthFri, 03 Apr 2015 18:05 GMTResource Planning - Part of the Greater Guru Goodhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/resource-planning-part-of-the-greater-guru-good
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/resource-planning-part-of-the-greater-guru-good#id:219#date:17:34The Digital Project Management (DPM) community is experiencing something for the first time that has become old hat for the web design and development communities – open dialogue and the sharing of ideas. In the past couple years we’ve been able to tap into a growing number of open forums and online DPM communities (check out this article by the illustrious Brett Harned).

We can collectively geek out/freak out, asking and answering each others’ questions about process, tools, and the ‘softer’ art of people management.

As the Happy Cog team has been honing our approach to project resourcing, we’ve been zeroing in on which tools, conversations, and methods of information dissemination work best for our crew. As an homage to some recent resourcing conversations taking place in the larger DPM community, here’s a snapshot of our approach and what we’ve learned along the way.

THEPLAYERS:

Project Managers (PM’s)

As PM’s, we have the longest and most detailed view of each project. We are a tight group, always communicating and able to keep each other up to speed on the trajectory of our respective projects. We are also the most aware of aspects of a project that may not be captured in the project plans. For example, have any of the clients requested additional work necessitating a change request that would impact workload or project timeline?

Directors

By meeting (as needed) with our design and development directors, we are able to gain an understanding of project assignments through the lens of an individual’s professional development goals or how they think past and current assignments have worked on an individual and team level.

Sales Team

Once a month (more if needed) we review the sales pipeline with the sales team so that they have a current view of our project phases and assignments. On the flip side, we have the opportunity to catch any potential resourcing traffic jams based on when new projects would land, and then plan accordingly.

THETOOLS:

ResourceGuru

There are of resourcing apps out there. We’ve evaluated many of them and have most recently landed on ResourceGuru has been great for us for a number of reasons:

It is super easy to assign hours to an individual by day (adding hours by week would be a nice feature addition – we’re not in the practice of micromanaging someone’s hours to the minute).

The weekly project view gives us a sense of how many project hours are booked each week.

Assigned hours can be copied from week to week, so it’s easy to plan ahead.

Each week our project managers enter project assignments in ResourceGuru in preparation for a meeting with directors. Using the bookings view and project reports in ResourceGuru we collectively talk through each project, first reviewing our project needs for the coming week in detail and then reviewing the next month at a broader level (using the projects report).

Google Docs

We’ve found that the single most important report or view missing from ResourceGuru’s set of reports is a project-level view of assignments over upcoming months.

To fill this gap, we created a spreadsheet with each phase for each project (this can easily be adapted for sprints if you using a more agile approach). This spreadsheet gives us the bigger picture view of assignments and phase overlap across all projects. We review it in tandem with the sales pipeline to get a sense of what our upcoming resource considerations may need to be.

2015 RESOLUTIONS

What have we learned from our evolving resourcing process? What can we do better in the coming year? In 2015 we resolve to:

Further our understanding of how time tracking (a bigger conversation for another day) impacts resource planning
Learn from the past – Take the time to compare time estimated vs time spent to get closer in our quest for estimating precision perfection.
Experiment with how we communicate all of this with our teams. What level of detail will guide someone as they plan their week vs. paralyzing them?
Learn from y’all!

How does your team approach resourcing? What tools do you use? Are you exploring any changes to your process? Let us know, we’re all ears!

]]>TopicsProcessProject ManagementTagsCommunicationFri, 09 Jan 2015 17:34 GMTRe-cognitionhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/re-cognition-happy-cog-reflects-on-2014
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/re-cognition-happy-cog-reflects-on-2014#id:218#date:16:452014 has been a year of big change for Happy Cog. We’ve had more than a year’s worth of adventures packed into a short 12 months. One thing that remains a constant, however, is our team’s continual quest to explore and hone our roles; process; project structure; and approach to clients, partners, and coworkers. Cognition serves as our way of documenting and sharing our thoughts and discoveries with the world.

As we call a wrap on 2014, we reflect on what we have learned. Below are some final reflections on several of the top trafficked Cognition posts of 2014 (and a word from the infamous Joe Rinaldi).

Brenna Heaps:
Although there have been countless articles highlighting various studies showing that the fold is a mythical concept and that people are both comfortable and accustomed to scrolling on the web, the argument continues. Sophie’s article highlights some of the most common concerns that we hear from our clients and then provides a simple explanation for each. The point isn’t to invalidate these concerns, but to provide the “defender of the fold” with context so that they understand the concepts.

The web is constantly changing and it’s our job to keep up with the times. Our clients hire us for our knowledge and guidance, as well as our compassion and ability to provide simplified explanations. In this case I think Sophie was talking to herself in a mirror or something, but she does a great job of explaining things to herself.

Sophie Shepherd:
Stephen makes a lot of specific points in this article that I love, but what they all come down to is empathy. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes doesn’t only make you a better designer or developer—it makes you a better coworker, friend, and person. I love this quote: “It is impossible to collaborate effectively without a sense of empathy. It provides a sense of fellowship and enables better teamwork. Designers and developers should understand each others’ perspectives. With that understanding, we can work better together, sharing a single path to success.” Just replace the words Designers & Developers there and it relates to any industry or life situation. It’s a lesson we should all revisit again and again.

Allison Wagner:
Ticky tacky web design. Too often, we as web designers scrape bells and whistles from “X Best of Y” linkbait articles and hot glue them to the web. As Greg so eloquently puts it

While our new post-Internet Explorer 6 world enables an amazing array of browser effects, the one tool we all need is constraint.

Designing for today’s zeitgeist is dangerous because things move too fast—pushing clients to think about a redesign before they’ve even launched. Do their content, business, and—most importantly—users a favor: honor their message on the web with carefully crafted design, not ticky tacky web design.

Next

2014 has been an educational journey for Happy Cog and we’re excited to apply what we’ve learned in the next year. Leading that effort moving forward will be our own Joe Rinaldi, as he moves into a new position as President of Happy Cog.

“I’m grateful that my mentors Greg Hoy, Greg Storey, and Jeffrey Zeldman have prepared me for this opportunity. Without their support over the last four years and endorsement moving forward, I wouldn’t be ready to lead the Happy Cog team here in Philadelphia, and Austin, and Brooklyn, and Portland. Uncharacteristically, I don’t have a lot to say right now.

It is my responsibility to create an environment where our team can do their best work, with the best possible partners and colleagues. As a longtime student of Happy Cog I hope to draw on lessons learned from Happy Cog’s amazing alumni. As our current team’s biggest fan, I hope to squeeze every great idea out of them to evolve our organization in their image moving forward. Success in 2015 is a Happy Cog that is the sum total of the best we’ve been, added to the promise and potential of our current and future team. That’s what I’ll be doing instead of flapping my gums.

Lastly, I’m humbled by what the idea of Happy Cog means to many people in our industry. It’s a responsibility our entire team takes seriously. We benefit so much from our ongoing dialog with our friends and peers. We hope you’ll continue to share your ideas and opinions with us, and keep telling us what you think about ours.”

-Joe Rinaldi

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2015!

]]>TopicsCommunityDesignTeamTagscmsHolidaysThu, 18 Dec 2014 16:45 GMTArtful Matchmaking: Client to Processhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/artful-matchmaking-client-to-process
Abby Fretzhttps://cognition.happycog.com/article/artful-matchmaking-client-to-process#id:205#date:15:45Over the course of hundreds of projects, project managers develop a very real sense while trying to build a perfect project plan that we are architects pulling from a tried-and-true collection of building blocks. But, (and this is a big but—I cannot lie) tried-and-true can be blinding. Though some client teams and projects seem to closely resemble past experiences, every client is unique, and there are countless combinations of project requirements and team personalities.

Our team puts a strong focus on digging deep early in the project and building a comprehensive understanding of the people and factors at play. Think of it as high-quality speed dating. Throughout early stakeholder interviews with the client team, company research, and project kickoff, we keep detailed notes on the client team’s technical proficiency, clarity (or not) of their current brand, ability to verbalize their key challenges and goals for web, and what seems to make them comfortable or uncomfortable.

There are three things we always insist on when working with a new client: involvement of key stakeholders; consistent, open communication; and signoff on key deliverables. Beyond some of these core elements, we have an open sandbox in which to experiment and craft our approach. There are many opportunities to put project management agility into practice (no, no, not Agile with a capital A, just the good old definition of the word).

Mix up your mode

A huge opportunity to adapt our project plans and the way we work per project/client’s needs is to adjust how we communicate with a client. As a project manager, it may be necessary to deviate from your ideal mode of communication in order to make a project actually move. Systemic issues within a client’s organization (lack of resources, poor email practices, etc.) often can’t be changed—at least in the duration of your engagement—so be flexible with your mode of communication! If a client is often on the road and lives and dies by his phone, text him a quick reminder that feedback is due. For a client who frequently has issues with her calendar, make sending an email or Basecamp post with meeting details and call-in information part of your process.

Doggedly insisting on a set procedure will only frustrate your team and client alike. This is your opportunity as a project manager to show compassion, take one for the team, and smooth unnecessary project wrinkles.

Plan and adjust deliverables together

When building our project plans, my and my team’s collective knowledge about how digital projects work helps us identify accurate timing, number of design deliverables, and roles on the project. Rather than stick to a series of completely known, tried-and-true design deliverables, we have been analyzing what would work—and not work—about a particular design deliverable.

On a recent project, our team dove into new territory for several early deliverables. The client team has a beautifully unique way of talking about their very beloved brand and culture. Everything is a story, and every story evokes a lot of emotion about the brand. After our stakeholder interviews, we paused and mulled over the colorful, wild notes we’d gathered from them about their history, brand, and goals.

In plotting our subsequent milestones, we decided to match the way we talked about design to their team’s casual, creative storytelling. Some of the usual suspects for early deliverables (e.g. a highly detailed early sitemap or even traditional styleboards) simply wouldn’t resonate with them. To assure the client we understood their unique story and to get early buy-in on how we intended to translate it to a redesigned website, we decided to deliver a storyboard before any other IA, UX, or design deliverables. The storyboard highlighted quotes from their stakeholder interviews and—with hand-drawn sketches that loosely represented pages on the site—user experiences the client wanted us to put a lot of focus on in the redesign.

The client loved the fact that it was hand-drawn and that it clearly illustrated our early thinking about what was most important to them. Following deliverables included more traditional styleboards and wireframes, but with their early enthusiasm and buy-in to our mode of storytelling and design. This kind of dedication to tailoring deliverables to clients can really help a project succeed—quickly.

If we are going to be innovative and flexible, we need to also clearly communicate our motivations. If clients understand the process and are confident that the new proposition is indeed the best direction, they will appreciate the narrative behind your choices and will be far more willing to reconsider timing or format of deliverables.

Experimenting with new types of deliverables has been both a bit terrifying (well, maybe just for me as PM) and entirely thrilling. Of course, they are never perfect, but that’s okay. Selecting more innovative deliverables rewards us with focused client feedback, curious peers, and a fresh take on what our process could be for future projects. We keep evolving and improving, and get stronger as practitioners and a team—all by being willing to not be precious about our process.